A young woman disfigured by a medical mistake on the other side of the world has hope again in Louisville.Next month, a world-renowned reconstructive surgeon at the University of Louisville will begin a series of operations to rebuild her face and jaw.Lessya Kotelevskaya has endured pain for the past decade and nearly died because of a misdiagnosis of cancer and an awful round of radiation that literally burned a hole in her face.Under her bandage, 30-year-old Kortalevskaya has a 2 and 1/2 inch hole about 1 and 1/2 inch deep that won't heal.Even deeper, Kortalevskaya has more serious damage to her bone and tissue, part of an unending pain and misery she's lived with for more than a decade."She doesn't have words. She can't describe it in just words," said Oleg Sennik, Kortalevskaya's cousin.Eleven years ago, when Kortalevskaya was 18 years old, doctors in her native Kazakhstan found a bump in her jaw and diagnosed a terminal tumor."She didn't really understand what cancer was and when they said that she had three days to six months to live. It totally wiped her off her feet," said Sennik.It was a medical mistake. It wasn't a tumor, but the diagnosis led to a horrendous treatment."They prescribed 60 radiational treatments and she could only handle 40," said SennikThe radiation was so intense it burned a permanent hole in Kortalevskaya's face and destroyed her jawbone and muscles.Kortalevskaya's can barely open her mouth and can't eat most food."She has a simple wish to take a little apple and have a bite of apple," Sennik said.Sennik, who moved to the U.S., once baby-sat Kortalevskaya, but lost track of her after the breakup in the Soviet Union.When he settled in Louisville, he spent years tracking her down.Last year, Sennik found his cousin in Kazakhstan, homeless, sick and nearly dead."When I saw her last year, first time, she was 79 pounds. I didn't think she's going to have hope," Sennick said.In July, Sennik flew Kortalevskaya to Louisville and found Dr. Jarrod Little, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with University of Louisville Physicians."It's not going to be an easy process. It's going to take multiple stages," Little said.Tuesday at a tear-filled news conference, Little laid out a plan to rebuild what radiation damaged."I'm very confident we're going to be very successful at getting her back to being a normal, functioning part of society and get her back to the way she needs to be," Little said.Kortalevskaya and her family will not pay a dime for the expensive operations, Little, UofL Physicians and University Hospital are all donating the procedures free of charge.The first of several operations is scheduled for Nov. 14.Click here to follow her story

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

A young woman disfigured by a medical mistake on the other side of the world has hope again in Louisville.

Next month, a world-renowned reconstructive surgeon at the University of Louisville will begin a series of operations to rebuild her face and jaw.